Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardIn an NBA exhibition game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Detroit Pistons former Syracuse greats Wes Johnson, Jonny Flynn and Jason Hart sit on the bench in the second half.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- This town may have seen better players than Jason Hart. Guys who shot better from the floor. Guys who threw down more than the one (1) dunk he slammed during his four-year college career. Guys who possessed a greater array of razzmatazz.

And Jason, a fella who long ago checked his ego at the door, would nod to any of that. He could play the basketball piano a bit, sure. Nobody starts 131 games for Syracuse University, as Hart did, unless he has talent. But Jason never did mind moving the thing, too.

“You have to be tough,” Hart said Thursday afternoon. “You have to go about doing your work.”

Pound for pound, was there ever a tougher Orangeman than Jason Hart, the 6-foot-3 guard? Was any SU athlete’s collar ever bluer than the one Hart buttoned day after day after day before reporting for work? You can ponder those questions until three minutes beyond forever, but don’t bother because the answers are no and certainly not.

And it is partly for those reasons that Hart -- after flying into Syracuse tonight and watching his first-ever game in the Carrier Dome as a civilian on Saturday afternoon when the Orange takes its swings at the DePaul piñata -- will accept the 29th Vic Hanson Medal of Excellence on Sunday evening during the annual team dinner at the Oncenter.

Carmelo Anthony writes a thank-you note to Denver Nuggets fans As John Wooden, Ray Meyer, Bob Costas and an array of former Syracuse players have been previously given this prestigious award, it is a pretty big deal. And so, Jason will be coming in from his home in Granada Hills, Calif., accompanied by his bride (Brandi) and their two sons (Jason, 8; and Justin, 4) with wide eyes.

“I’m excited,” he said of the affair that will begin with a 5 p.m. reception (including autographs and a silent auction) followed by a 6 p.m. feed. “Not nervous. Excited. When I go around and tell people where I went to school, I do it with pride. And the older I get, the more of a pride thing it becomes. I’ll do whatever I can do for Syracuse one hundred thousand per cent.”

Fact is, Hart, who will be 33 next month, has already done plenty.

After all, he helped SU to a cumulative record of 92-40 and to two Sweet Sixteens between 1996-'97 and 1999-'00, he remains SU’s career leader in steals, he sits at No. 2 on the all-time assists list and he scored 1,503 points. Beyond that, he willed himself through all or parts of nine NBA seasons -- a number exceeded, to date, by only seven other Orange products (Dave Bing, Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas, Billy Owens, Danny Schayes, Rony Seikaly and Etan Thomas).

So, he’s as real (and as a gritty) as a deal can be.

“Jason is one of the best stories we’ve ever had here,” said Jim Boeheim, the SU coach who should know. “He came in and played right away as a freshman. He wasn’t quite ready, but he worked his way into becoming a really good Big East player. We started 19-0 in his senior year (which reaped a No. 4 national ranking) and Jason was a big part of that.

“Then, nobody thought he was going to play in the NBA. Nobody. But he did his job, knew what it took to be a professional and had a respectable career. He’s loyal to the program. He’s saved his money. He’s taken care of his family. He’s a great story for people to read about.”

Now, you know this guy. You know how he’d arrived in Syracuse as an 18-year-old, born-and-raised southern Californian and proceeded to become fairly traumatized by our winters. You know how he’d strap on his weighted vest and run the Los Angeles beaches during his visits home. You know how he’d play defense the way Joe Cocker would sing a song.

Indeed, it was not for nothing that Jason Hart was named to SU’s All-Century Team on Feb. 27, 2000 . . . while he was still in an Orange uniform.

But what you may not know is how committed he was to making a living in the NBA, which he did, earning nearly $12 million while suiting up for nine clubs. But this, only after swallowing hard.

“Everybody hopes to have the same career in the NBA that they had in college, but mine wasn’t,” admitted Hart. “I couldn’t live on what I did at Syracuse. It wasn’t like Jim Boeheim could call up somebody and say, ‘Put my boy on your team.’ So I had to change up. I had to adapt to stay in the NBA and that’s what I did.

Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard, 2000SU's head coach Jim Boeheim talks to Jason Hart in a game against against Michigan State in the 2000 NCAA basketball tournament.

“A lot of guys coming out of the big programs, when they fail, they go into a shell. They tend to give up quicker. It’s hard to get in that league. And it’s hard to stay there. If you don’t have a specialty that you can turn to when something else isn’t going right in your game, it’s tough to stick. My thing was defense, and I stuck to defense my whole career.”

And he lasted -- by mixing the skills he did have with the grit and character he developed -- so much longer than most folks might have imagined. And now, with that gig having ended this past fall, Jason will be back in town . . . and back in the Dome . . . and back to hearing the familiar applause. This time, with the wife (who he began dating as a junior in high school) and kids beaming along with him.

Nice story.

(Rats! Boeheim was right again.)

(Bud Poliquin’s columns, his "To The Point" observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. HIs work can also be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, he can be heard Mondays through Fridays (10 a.m.-12 noon), on the "Bud & the Manchild" sports-talk radio show on The Score 1260-AM. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)